Hundreds of millions lost, every year.

Menu

Category Archives: Baltimore Oriole

As I’m about to head out for a conference this week, spring and summer monitoring comes to a close. I’ll begin August 2017 the 9th consecutive year of (mostly) daily monitoring for window casualties at the Noble Research Center on the campus of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA.

It’s been a busy spring.

Beginning Mar 1st, here’s what has turned up at the Noble Research Center.

Dead Birds

Indigo Bunting – 5

Painted Bunting – 5

Ruby-throated Hummingbird – 3

Lincoln’s Sparrow – 2

Mourning Dove – 2

Nashville Warbler – 2

Orange-crowned Warbler – 2

Baltimore Oriole – 1

Chipping Sparrow – 1

Eastern Meadowlark – 1

House Wren – 1

Northern Parula – 1

Tennessee Warbler – 1

Yellow-billed Cuckoo – 1

That’s 28 individuals of 14 species, and damn, that is disheartening.

On the plus side, my commitment to checking almost every day has put me in position to save a few birds by getting them safely away from the building and taking them someplace secure to rest and recuperate for a bit. I can’t guarantee that all 6 of these survived the ordeal, but they seemed to be in good shape when I last saw them:

Today was one of those “just when I think I have this figured out” days.

As I was rounding the west perimeter of the Noble Research Center between the southwest and northwest alcoves, some feathers caught my eye up against the brick side of the building. This is the first time (in nearly 8 years) I found a bird at this spot and it was also pretty clearly one new to the study: a bright orange and black Baltimore Oriole, or at least a nice pile of feather remnants from what had lately been an adult male (ASY) Baltimore Oriole.

Though for consistency’s sake I’ll record that spot on the building as the location of collision, I in fact don’t know where the bird hit. All I know is that a predator (and very likely a cat based on the neatly sheared primaries) appears to have eaten said oriole at that spot.

Confirming Baltimore Oriole as the source of the wing.

Around the corner and into the northwest alcove, I found the remnants of a scavenged adult Mourning Dove. Here again was a bird in a very odd location. Strangely enough, the bird was in the exact location (beneath an ornamental buttonbush) where collaborator and OSU PhD student Corey Riding had the week before left a Cedar Waxwing carcass for a scavenging trial. Corey, however, had left neither a dove, an oriole, nor anything else at that spot since the waxwing. Puzzling for sure . . .

Finally, there was another bird at the end of the alcove in front of one of the untreated panes. Here was another oddity – a House Wren.